The ASPEN Board of Directors has selected Russell James Merritt, MD, PhD, to serve for the next 5 years as editor-in-chief of its bimonthly interdisciplinary journal Nutrition in Clinical Practice (NCP).
NCP has bridged the gap between research and practice by delivering peer-reviewed articles on the scientific basis and clinical application of nutrition and nutrition support for the past 37 years.
Dr. Merritt is an emeritus clinical professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, and he serves as a voluntary faculty member for the nutrition support team, which he founded in 1978 at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.
He was recommended to the ASPEN Board by an eight-member search committee.
“While we considered several highly qualified candidates, Dr. Merritt’s long and meritorious work with a variety of publications—including ASPEN publications—made him a standout,” said Dr. Praveen Goday, selection committee chair. “He edited two editions of ASPEN’s Nutrition Support Manual, served on our Publications Committee, headed the ASPEN Publications Think Tank, and most recently served for 3 years as an associate editor for ASPEN’s sister publication, the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.”
Dr. Merritt also served on the ASPEN Board of Directors and has chaired several committees.
“NCP faces numerous challenges if it is to continue to be highly relevant to all the disciplines involved in nutrition care. Not the least of which is the explosive growth of medical knowledge,” said Dr. Merritt. “It will be important to identify strategies to help ASPEN members process and organize this information to benefit their education and clinical practice.”
“We also have to keep pace with all the new ways NCP readers find, receive, and retrieve information; expand our online presence; and incorporate different media, such as video, in our published articles.”
To aid in these efforts, Dr. Merritt hopes to expand NCP’s roster of associate editors and editorial board members to reflect ASPEN’s membership diversity.
Dr. Merritt will take over the editor-in-chief duties on January 1, 2024, from Jeanette Hasse, PhD, RD, LD, CNSC, CCTD.
“NCP has steadily grown in importance and influence under Dr. Hasse’s dynamic leadership over the last 20 years,” said ASPEN President Phil Ayers, PharmD, BCNSP, FMSHP, FASHP. “During her remarkable tenure, the journal’s number of pages doubled, and it now receives more than 550 submissions each year, nearly all unsolicited. She further expanded the journal's reach and influence in 2011 by introducing podcasts on key findings and areas of clinical importance from each issue.”
Dr. Merritt received his medical degree from the University of California at Irvine School of Medicine and his PhD in nutritional biochemistry/metabolism from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed his clinical training at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, and following a fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology at the University of California School of Medicine, he joined the pediatrics faculty at the University of Southern California.
In 1989, Dr. Merritt changed his work focus to private industry, and over the next 18 years, he served as medical director in the nutrition divisions of three large international corporations, gaining invaluable experience in adult nutrition research protocols and a global perspective.
Dr. Merritt resumed his clinical practice in 2008 with an appointment as a clinical professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine. He has focused his practice on the nutrition support of hospitalized patients and children with chronic illnesses.
He has also been directly involved in developing and refining the curriculum of one of the few advanced training programs in pediatric clinical nutrition. “My overriding professional goal,” said Dr. Merritt, “has been to bring current nutrition knowledge to bear on patient care and to educate students and practitioners at all levels on the important role of nutrition in medicine.”
“I aim for NCP to engage with and speak to all disciplines under the ASPEN umbrella and continue to be the ‘go-to’ journal for reliable information and guidance on nutrition support and related patient management.”